-
Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.
We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team -
HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
we are now using a backup solution
Hockley Hill
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
Hi Carolina, so that must mean then that Harry Smith and Jackson were most probably in business together if he's listed in the 1849 directory (erm .. I think!). Viv.
Lyn i'll have a look at the Trees thread. Hockey's such an interesting area, and from what I can make out, still has many older buildings. Although quite a lot look like they need some TLC. Viv.
bernie what great pics...ive not seen the hockley flyover one from that angle..looks like edge of the pally cinema on the left and of course icknield st school in the distance...and yes you are correct about pic 2 its nursery road on the left and hunters road running up.. the buildings are h samuels oh and i just love the jag parked outside..well it looks like a jag and if its not i still like it lol..
Last edited:
Key Hill Brian
Proud Brummie
Hi Lynne,
Popped into Harry Smiths yesterday and chatted to an eldery gent - Mr Smith! He is the father of Amanda who currently works there, and who you presumably chatted to. He was saying he was one of the last Smith directors of Smith & Pepper - now the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter It seems ther Smiths who started the firm split and one brother moved to new Zealand where the firm is still going very strong! It is the same family as own the hardware shop. They owned all 3 shops but leased the corner one to the Decorators Evans. He showed me the lintel he had had put in on the right of the corner entrance where he opened up the wall into the centre building! The family owned much property in the area, including many houses in Well St which were rented out.
A great chap - just moved from rowington (in the middle of nowhere) to Henly in Arden. Still visits but not as often as wants to.
He said they used to have a forge out back - in Key Hill and did a lot work shoing horses - They even still have an unsold bag of horse nails on the shelf at the back of the original shop - now the hardware section.!!!!!!!!
oh wow bri what a great bit of extra info you have gleamed from your visit...well fancy the smiths being part of smith and pepper...just across from where i worked in vyse st...my grandparents had a little shop in well st in the 1920s and also lived there..quite possable then that the smith family owned it and rented it out and fancy still having an old bag of horse nails out the back..i missed that one lol...thanks bri..
lyn
lyn
Key Hill Brian
Proud Brummie
He was a real nice old gent Lynne. Pity I hadn't more time to stop & chat. I asume his daughter is co-owner with her husband - the one who does the washing machine side of things?
It was good of you to get the pics down and photographed.
My eldest brother worked there on saturdays when we lived in Little King St - about 1963-4. He vists Brum most Novembers to go to the Boys Brigade Remembrance day march in Great King St - he called in a couple of years ago - and still remembered where all tghe stuff was down the bottom - just like old Arkwright's!!! Lot's of O's & P's etc!
It was good of you to get the pics down and photographed.
My eldest brother worked there on saturdays when we lived in Little King St - about 1963-4. He vists Brum most Novembers to go to the Boys Brigade Remembrance day march in Great King St - he called in a couple of years ago - and still remembered where all tghe stuff was down the bottom - just like old Arkwright's!!! Lot's of O's & P's etc!
Key Hill Brian
Proud Brummie
Pherhaps he meant daughter in law, rather than daughter?
ps I noticed the factory unit the other side of the dual carriageway was being done up as "The Big Top" - New Asian wedding place!
ps I noticed the factory unit the other side of the dual carriageway was being done up as "The Big Top" - New Asian wedding place!
yep i saw that bri...
Below is a map c 1889. t shows no 217 and 221 in red. I cannot be absolutely certain how the courts were numbered but think it likely that no 2 back 217 is in blue, and no 5 back 221 in green. I take it the mint building will show you where the houses were in the street. As you can see these courts did also have a name, but these often fell out of use.
Key Hill Brian
Proud Brummie
Great pic Bernie, taken in 1953 from approxiamtely the site of the bomb that landed in the Cemetery. It took years to find this pic (with others). The Library kept saying they had none of Warstone Lane Cemetery, until one day an ex Librarian said that they did - but they were filed under P - for Public Works Photo's!!!! When we finally got to see them and ordered copies - we were only allowed, after much arguing - to have them for personal use and for display purposes - but not to be put in books, booklets or on Website or else we would have to pay astronomical fees to the Library! It's good to see the pic on public display now.
Brian
cracking pic of the church and the first i have ever seen....bri i have alerted members many times when searching for old photos to actually ask the staff to search the public works dept section and and also the regeneration of birm section...dont just look in the index boxes...staff at the library do not always tell folk that these sections exist...ive found so many old street pics etc by going down this route as the public works dept took pics of prob nearly every street in brum prior to demolision and the quality of them are second to none and as the photos belong to the city they will let you take photos of them with you own camera..
lyn
lyn
Last edited:
Key Hill Brian
Proud Brummie
One of a set of about a dozen mostly dated 1953 held in the Library. As you say the Index cards are often a waste of time - have searched for St Micheals, Mint cemetery, WL Cemetery, cemeteries, etc - Never thought to look under P until I was told, and than they are not in the card index under that! They are secret 'under the counter' pics - makes you feel like a dirty old man asking for them!!!!!
oh lol bri but you are quite right....anyone searching for old photos really must ask the staff to do the search for them..just one example of this is for 4 years i kept going up and searching the index cards for paddington st then someone told me about the public works and regeneration sections so just before the library closed last year i asked them to do a search for me and low and behold they had not just one but 5 of paddington st where i was born..not ashamed to admit i had tears in me eyes when i saw them as one of them showed my house...
lyn
Key Hill Brian
Proud Brummie
Great news Lyn - You do have tell them about the Public Works pics - some of the staff there last year did not know about them themselves!
A pc of the 1923 flooding of Hockley Brook. Seems an odd image for a postcard, but I suppose it was big news at the time. Viv.
TOPSYTURVEY
brum
What a smashing pic Vivienne. Not sure if that was the year the little boys were drowned?
fantastic pic of the hockley brook floodings viv...would love to know the exact location of it...ive got a photo taken in hunters vale showing the pumping out of the cellars of the pub that was there..all the houses on thats side of the brook were also flooded..they dried them out and folk still lived in them including my dad as a young boy until they had to be demolished just before the war..
